Kukla's Korner Hockey

Don’t let anyone fool you. The Rangers’ transfer of coaching power from John Tortorella to Alain Vigneault is as much about style as substance, as much about personality as advanced metrics.

It is about an easy smile replacing a perpetual scowl as the face of the hockey team, not only in public settings but, much more importantly, behind the closed doors of the locker room.

Glen Sather doesn’t want any coach’s metaphorical blood on his players’ hands, doesn’t want to be perceived as having been pushed into making a change that otherwise would have been avoided. That’s why the general manager has gone out of his way to deny the Rangers’ exit meetings were the motivating force behind the call to dismiss Tortorella.